They were debating what this could mean, when a second and similar group appeared, then a third, and then a fourth.  Ten police vans passed in this manner, following each other very closely, and almost touching.

“Those are our colleagues!” exclaimed Aubry (du Nord).

In truth the last batch of the Representatives, prisoners of the Quai d’Orsay, the batch destined for Vincennes, was passing through the Faubourg.  It was about seven o’clock in the morning.  Some shops were being opened and were lighted inside, and a few passers-by came out of the houses.

Three carriages defiled one after the other, closed, guarded, dreary, dumb; no voice came out, no cry, no whisper.  They were carrying off in the midst of swords, of sabres, and of lances, with the rapidity and fury of the whirlwind, something which kept silence; and that something which they were carrying off, and which maintained this sinister silence, was the broken Tribune, the Sovereignty of the Assemblies, the supreme initiative whence all civilization is derived; it was the word which contains the future of the world, it was the speech of France!

A last carriage arrived, which by some chance had been delayed.  It was about two or three hundred yards behind the principal convoy, and was only escorted by three Lancers.  It was not a police-van, it was an omnibus, the only one in the convoy.  Behind the conductor, who was a police agent, there could distinctly be seen the Representatives heaped up in the interior.  It seemed easy to rescue them.

Cournet appealed to the passers-by; “Citizens,” he cried, “these are your Representatives, who are being carried off!  You have just seen them pass in the vans of convicts!  Bonaparte arrests them contrary to every law.  Let us rescue them!  To arms!”

A knot formed of men in blouses and of workmen going to work.  A shout came from the knot, “Long live the Republic!” and some men rushed towards the vehicle.  The carriage and the Lancers broke into a gallop.

“To arms!” repeated Cournet.

“To arms!” repeated the men of the people.

There was a moment of impulse.  Who knows what might have happened?  It would have been a singular accident if the first barricade against the coup d’etat had been made with this omnibus, which, after having aided in the crime, would this have aided in the punishment.  But at the moment when the people threw themselves on the vehicle they saw several of the Representative-prisoners which it contained sign to them with both hands to refrain.  “Eh!” said a workman, “they do not wish it!”

A second repeated, “They do not wish for liberty!”

Another added, “They did not wish us to have it, they do not wish it for themselves.”

All was said, and the omnibus was allowed to pass on.  A moment afterwards the rear-guard of the escort came up and passed by at a sharp trots and the group which surrounded Aubry (du Nord), Malardier, and Cournet dispersed.